10 May 09 One Million iPhones in China are Illegal

China has been known to be a place where locals would try to develop clones of authentic peripherals which pose as an alternative for people who cannot afford the original. And as far as headcount is concerned, it is not surprising to find over a million of them in China. Add to the fact that these figures may as well be too modest!

Although it has not yet formally entered China, the number of iPhones entering the Chinese market through various channels has reached over one million. Telecommunications consulting service company Ovum recently released a report that says it has taken little more than a year for sales of the iPhone to double in the Chinese market. However, compared with the popularity in China, iPhone sales in North America were exceeded by RIM’s BlackBerry for the first time.

At the end of 2007, consulting firm In-stat pointed out that the unlocked number of iPhones in the Chinese market reached 400,000, which means that within just more than a year, iPhone sales in China had increased by 2.5 times. Ovum estimates that if China Unicom introduces iPhone officially, sales in China will rise in a straight line.

Now is that good or bad? You be the judge.

(Source) China Stakes

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Tags: BlackBerry, China Unicom, chinese market, clones, consulting firm, consulting service, estimates, headcount, iPhone, iphones, north america, one million, peripherals, popularity, RIM, straight line, telecommunications, where locals